The INTECOL Congress 2013, Ecology: Into the Next 100 Years, a major international ecological meeting, was held on 17-23 August 2013 at the International Convention Center, ExCel, London with the theme, Advancing Ecology and Making it Count. There were 10 world class plenary speakers each discussing insightful topics. There were several symposia and organized sessions, as well as workshops and side events.

The INTECOL Congress is a gathering of thousands of ecologists worldwide to discuss theories, practices and methodologies of ecology. This is organized by the International Association for Ecology and is always co-hosted by a local ecological society. For the 2013 INTECOL Congress, the British Ecological Society was the co-host.

Feedback on paper presented

The session organizer has recognized the significance of the paper and I was invited to publish it in an Elsevier journal. The deadline for the manuscript submission will be on 15 October 2013.

Future directions of research presented

I am planning to continue on with this study and start focusing on the establishment of the biodiversity corridors which will indeed help in the rehabilitation of our degraded mangrove landscapes. I also plan to work on the ethnobotany aspect of the mangroves.

Potential foreign collaborators

For the island biocultural study, The Mokpo National University, Institute of Marine Culture in Korea (Dr SK Hong) and the University of Otago in New Zealand (Dr Priscilla Wehi) are potential collaborator. We are planning to publish mangrove studies.

Other important contacts and insights

I also met another potential collaborator at the University of London’s School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Now we are actually working on a proposal on the role of forest degradation in malaria epidemiology.

Short write-up of one’s participation (to be used to feature/publicize the grantee’s participation in the conference)

Dr Inocencio E Buot Jr, a professor of Ecology at the Institute of Biological Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, UP Los Banos and concurrent Dean of the Faculty of Management and Development Studies, UP Open University, presented the paper, Mangrove Patches and their Utilization by the Local People in Ajuy and Pedada Bays, Iloilo, Panay Island, Philippines at the 2013 INTECOL Congress held on 17-23 August 2013 in ExCel London.

Dr Buot highlighted the interesting results of the cluster and ordination analyses indicating diminishing number of species in degraded mangrove patches. The paper also discussed the dependence of local people on the mangrove resource. Hence, Dr Buot recommended immediate rehabilitation by creating biodiversity corridors to connect terribly fragmented mangrove patches and introducing mangrove aqua-silviculture to enhance detritus food chain as part of the mangrove rehabilitation process.

The paper was part of the organized symposium on Island Biocultural Diversity and Traditional Ecological Knowledge co-chaired by Dr SK Hong of Mokpo National University and Dr Priscilla Wehi of the University of Otago in New Zealand.